Taking $35m (£27m) on its opening weekend.
The film, which stars Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt, is a remake of the 1960 western film of the same name.
Its closest competitor was animated children's movie Storks, which debuted at number two with $21.8m (£16.8m).
The two films knocked Tom Hanks's Sully, which has been top of the box office for the last two weeks, down to number three.
Bridget Jones's Baby, which sees Renee Zellweger reprise her lead role in the third film in the franchise, was placed fourth with $4.5m (£3.5m).
Documentary film Snowden held its top five position after taking a further $4.1m (£3.2m) over the weekend.
In the United States and Canada,
The Magnificent Seven opened close with
Storks, and was estimated to open to around $30 million, with some estimates going as high as $50 million, which would make it one of the greatest September debuts of all-time. The film opened in 3,674 theaters, including having the benefit of playing in all IMAX theaters for one week and a number of premium large formats and
D-Box screens. It made $1.75 million from Thursday previews and $12.7 million on its first day. The film went on to gross $35.7 million in its opening weekend of which $2.9 million came from 372 IMAX theaters and managed to top the box office and scored the third biggest Western openers (not accounting for inflation), behind
Rango ($38.1 million) and
Cowboys & Aliens ($36.4 million). It is also director Fuqua's second biggest opening and Washington's third biggest.
the film was released in theaters at a time when the Western genre had been struggling to attract wide audiences and accrue lucrative revenues, as it has shown considerable downfall in interest among patrons since the 1970s. The genre has had several recent
box office flops such as
The Lone Ranger (2013) and
Cowboys & Aliens(2011), but has also found success in films like
Django Unchained (2012) and
True Grit (2010).
It's strong debut in North America was partly attributed to the presence of
Denzel Washington which industry analysts says is one of only a handful of movie stars today who consistently draws large audiences to theaters, and also to Fuqua's direction.
Deadline.com pointed out that the production budget of films also plays an important role in determining a film's success.
By comparison to other recent Western films,
The Magnificent cost $90 million to make before promotion and marketing costs are included and the site pointed out that "the trick is keeping their budgets reasonable", unlike
The Lone Ranger which cost a hefty $215 million to make and
Cowboys & Aliens cost $163 million. It became a financial recover for MGM after it loss a great deal of money with
Ben-Hur the previous month and became the studio's second hit of the year following
Me Before You released in June of this year.
Internationally, the film is projected to make around $100 million with foreign box office prognosticators expecting a similar $101.6 million total of
The Hateful Eight. It was released in South Korea (the first market worldwide) on September 14, 2016 and delivered an opening of $5.1 million, finishing in third place at the box office behind local film
The Age of Shadows and Hollywood tent pole
Ben-Hur. Internationally, it will next open in the United Kingdom and Ireland, Germany, Spain, and Russia. The following weekend, the film expanded to 62 markets and grossed $19.2 million from 63 markets (including Korea). IMAX made up $1.4 million from 234 theaters.
It opened in first place in Russia ($1.8 million) Spain ($1.1 million) and Malaysia ($560,000) and second in the United Kingdom and Ireland ($2.6 million), Germany ($1.4 million) and Brazil ($1.1 million). It is yet to open in France and Australia this week while a release in China is not yet determined.
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